Today, a large percentage of electronic content management, storage, and related services are remote, or “cloud” based. That is, many services allow a user to upload, store, and share files through remote servers. The trend is to centralize files (e.g., photos) and allow a user to access these centrally stored files through multiple devices and/or locations, utilizing a single account. Centralized storage is especially useful for two reasons. First, mobile devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and cameras, may have limited storage space. Second, users may desire to access all of their files (e.g., photos or videos) at any time on any device; however, it is impractical to store copies of all photo or video files on all devices. Cross-platform content synchronization and storage helps to eliminate or reduce these problems by allowing a user to store large files remotely and then access them through multiple devices.
To make uploading to a cloud-based content management system more efficient for the user, some services enable cross-platform content synchronization and sharing (e.g., Dropbox™), which enables users to conveniently upload, store, and view files on any device associated with the account. These services allow a user to setup their device to allow automatic uploads of files to the content management system. When the user has multiple devices that are configured to allow for automatic uploads, the content management system runs the risk of uploading the same file twice. In a particular example, a user may take a photo on their smart phone, which is configured to automatically upload the photo to a cloud-based content management system. Later, the user may save the same photo to their desktop computer when they dock their smart phone with their computer. The computer may be set up to upload image files from the smart phone and may also be configured to act as a client device with the content management system. In this instance, the photo may be automatically uploaded twice—once directly from the smart phone and again from the desktop computer. Detecting duplicate uploads may further be frustrated since the first uploaded image file may have been renamed when it was uploaded to the computer from the smart phone. As illustrated from this example, uploading a duplicate photo is inefficient, wastes bandwidth (especially in the case of mobile devices), creates electronic clutter, and takes up unnecessary space on the content management system's servers. The present disclosure recognizes and addresses the foregoing considerations, and others, of prior art system and methods.